[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
Nov. 14 KUWAIT: Kuwait reduces juvenile age, warning students Kuwaiti teenage students have been warned that they could face the death penalty or heavy prison terms for certain crimes following the decision to lower the juvenile age from 18 to 16 in January. "Starting next year, anyone aged 16 or more arrested for a crime will be tried by a regular court, and not the juvenile court, which means the death penalty for some crimes," Bader Al Ghadhoori, the head of juvenile protection at the Ministry of Interior, said. "Everybody, especially the students and their parents should be extremely careful about the significance of the change in the application of the law," he told students at a forum about the risks of misusing social media. Under the current juvenile law, criminal penalties are applied to people who are 18 years and above, while special penalties are applied to those under 18. Al Ghadhoori highlighted the importance of surfing websites and using social media, but warned against their negative aspects. "Online sites are double-edged for they can offer great opportunities as well as ominous risks. The problem is not so much with the sites as with the one surfing or using them," he said, quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas on Thursday. The official said that the most dangerous risks related to online sites were disturbances, strikes, demonstrations, mass absenteeism by students, sit-ins, underground organisations, terrorist and drug trafficking groups, alcohol, sex tourism, prostitution and organized crime. Some websites work on undermining relations with brotherly and friendly countries, incite attacks on leaders, presidents and iconic religious figures and symbols, provoke sectarian and tribal feuds, ridicule and deride others, and spread rumours, Al Ghadhoori added. "People should truly fear God and abide by the laws and regulations as several families and societies have been suffering from the negative impact of destructive websites," he said. Kuwait's parliament last year approved a new law for delinquent juveniles that lowered the age of minors from 18 to 16 years. The approval by 37 lawmakers and opposed by 7, was in line with the drive by the authorities curb a sharp increase in the crime rate following calls by some MPs to take a tougher stance in order to protect teenagers. The lawmakers who called for a lower juvenile age had warned that terrorist groups were working on recruiting young people and argued that strict measures were needed to foil their plans. However, several activists said that the new juvenile age as approved by the parliament last year would be a violation of the teenagers' rights. They said that young people should not be treated like adults and that a better option could be to slightly toughen their sentences. (source: zawya.com) KENYA: Form firing squads to take care of death penalty, says police boss Embu West Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) Francis Sang has called on the government to maintain the death sentence. Sang has called for the formation of a firing squad to execute those found guilty of committing capital offences. Speaking on Friday in Embu during the Power and Advisory Committee meeting with locals in the area, Sang said it would only be fair to subject capital offence victims to pain just as they did to their victims. "All capital offence suspects should be subjected to the same pain they subject to their victims. That is why the death penalty should be maintained and a firing squad formed to execute those found guilty of capital offences," said Sang. The Power and Mercy Advisory Committee was in Embu to seek the views of the people on whether to maintain the death penalty. Most in mates sentenced to death are serving life sentences, their fate lying with the views collected from the public. (source: hivisasa.com) INDONESIA: Drug smugglers lose final death sentence appeal in Indonesia The Supreme Court of Indonesia on Friday upheld the death sentence against three Taiwanese men who were convicted last year of smuggling drugs into the country. In its ruling, the court said the crime committed by the 3 defendants would cause great harm to Indonesians, particularly young people. Chen Chia-wei, Wang An-kang and Luo Chih-cheng, therefore, deserve capital punishment, the court ruled in its 2nd trial of the case. According to the court documents, the three men were arrested at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in 2014 while attempting to smuggle 2 kilograms of amphetamine into the country from Hong Kong. They were sentenced to death by a Jakarta district court last year but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment in an appeal to the High Court. Prosecutors, however, appealed the High Court ruling and in January the Supreme Court sentenced the defendants to death. The 3 defendants then filed an extraordinary
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IOWA, N.MEX., CALIF., USA
Nov. 14 OHIO: Death row inmate from Warren gets disability hearing A Trumbull County death row inmate will try to avoid the death penalty in court this week as a hearing begins today to determine if he is severely intellectually disabled. Andre Williams, 49, formerly of Warren, who was convicted in the 1988 brutal attack on an elderly Warren couple that left the husband dead and the wife blind will be sitting at the defense table in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge W. Wyatt McKay's courtroom as Williams' lawyers argue he has an IQ score below 70. McKay ruled in 2004 and 2007 without hearings in favor of the state on this issue, which is known in legal parlance as an Atkins claim. However, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated McKay's ruling in October 2015 and ordered Williams' execution postponed until a local hearing is held. The appeals court gave McKay 6 months to start the process for the hearing. Over the last several months, attorneys in the case have been meeting with the judge to discuss legal procedures. Williams is being held in the Trumbull County Jail, where he was taken from his cell at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional to execute people who are severely mentally disabled. In June 2003, Williams' attorneys filed a petition with the local court stating his death sentence should be set aside. The state generally considers IQ tests of below 70 to indicate a severe mental disability. In his earlier decisions, McKay cited Williams' scored higher than 70 on several IQ tests. Williams was convicted and sentenced to death for aggravated murder in 1989, and both the Ohio 11th District Court of Appeals and Ohio Supreme Court upheld that verdict and sentence. The 1988 attack at the Wick Street SE home left George Melnick, 65, dead and his Katherine, 64, blind, injured and confined to a nursing home for the rest of her life. Prosecutors said the woman was raped and left nearly dead under a kitchen table. She died in October 2012. Williams' accomplice, Christopher W. Daniel, 47, is serving a 37-to 100-year prison term given in 1989. (source: Tribune Chronicle) IOWA: Branstad reacts wisely to call for death penalty A rose to Gov. Terry Branstad for providing a thoughtful response when asked, in the immediate aftermath of 2 Iowa police officers being killed, whether Iowa should reinstate the death penalty. Branstad observed that now is the time to focus on the 2 officers and their families. "I think we have to look at this from the perspective of, 'What is the most effective thing we can do to protect the safety of our citizens?'" he said, adding that the death penalty "is not a panacea" for attacks on law enforcement. Last year, a Branstad spokesman said the governor would be in favor of the death penalty in limited circumstances - for instance, when a victim is kidnapped or raped, and then killed. Should that idea resurface in the 2017 legislative session, Branstad and legislators will have to confront the irrefutable fact that since the mid-1970s, 156 people sent to death row have later been exonerated. That equates to 1 death-row exoneration for every 10 people put to death. It's a reminder that any discussion of the death penalty will have to be driven by fact-based evidence, not by the raw emotions that stem from the Nov. 2 tragedy. (source: Editorial, Des Moines Register) NEW MEXICO: Death row exonoree campaigns against capital punishment "My question to the American public is: How many people need to be exonerated before we realize we do not need a death row in this country?" This was the focus of Anthony Ray Hinton's presentation at the UNM Law School on Thursday, where he was invited by UNM's Innocence and Justice Project. Hinton was on death row in Alabama for 30 years until he was exonerated in 2015. "I was, when I was released, the 152nd person that had been exonerated from death row. Just in a year and a half, 4 more were exonerated," he said. "That brings the total to 156." Hinton said he was released on Good Friday, and was able to attend an Easter service 2 days after. "Every day the government kills in your name. Do you really want the government killing innocent people in your name?" Hinton asked. "If you don't, then you should take a stand,". He said 1 execution of an innocent person is 1 too many, and that politics plays a role in where the death penalty is imposed. He accused the death penalty - which New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has recently said she wants to bring back - of installing a false sense of security. Many anti-death penalty proponents cite the often overlooked price tag of performing an execution, saying it's something more people should be concerned about. "Nobody, no government, no prosecutor, can look you in the eye and tell you that you are more safe with the
